Printing and Binding Options

Home-based Publishing

Most people prefer to read "hard-copy" books rather than electronic versions, which require the use of a computer. Unfortunately, many of the books promoted by Heritage History are no longer in print and some of those that are, are prohibitively expensive.

Our collection of Compact Libraries was conceived of as a solution to this dilemma. The books we make available in our libraries are in an electronic form, but they have been formatted in such a way that they are easy to print on any home or office printer. Our object is to enable students and teachers to print and bind books themselves if they so desire, so that these books can be read at leisure, away from the constraints of computers and networks.

We believe that printing and binding technology is improving and becoming more accessible every year. Just as high quality, inexpensive printing technology has become far more commonplace in the last ten years, we believe that inexpensive and accessible binding technology is not far off in the future. "Print-on-demand" publishing technology has already made it possible to put hundreds of classics from yesteryear back into print after decades of unavailability. As long as these trends continue the cost of public-domain classics will continue to drop and the general availability of these priceless older books can only improve.

It is our hope that these suggestions for do-it-yourself printing and binding will be obsolete in a few years because we foresee even better self-publishing technologies becoming available in the future. For the time being, however, we hope you find our suggestions helpful and are able to either read online or self-publish these books in whatever manner is most appropriate to your situation.

Printing Options

Landscape, two-column display
         In order to create self-published books that appear similar to professionally printed ones each book in our Compact Libraries is produced in landscape, two column format. As far as the reader is concerned this format is visually similar to a that of a standard 5x8 inch paperback book.

Landscape, two column display.

Since two "book pages" per sheet can be printed on one sheet of copy paper, the text equivalent of a 100 page book can be printed on only fifty sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 printer paper. If both sides of the paper are used (duplex mode, on an office printer), such a book could be printed on only 25 sheets of paper. In order to avoid confusion, therefore, we number sheets, instead of pages, and report our book size as the number of sheets of paper required to print the book single-sided on a regular home printer.

PDF format
        Our Compact Libraries are provided in PDF format in order to assure the highest quality printer interface no matter what printer is used. PDF readers are widely available on every type of workstation, and PDF format prints in a uniform manner on any printer. The PDF reader also provides a very easy method of reading books online. Our landscape format conforms very well to most electronic display panels. For more information about reading online, see here.

Duplex printing
        Duplex is a mode that provides a way of printing on both sides of each sheet of paper. In most office printers, this mode operates automatically. Most home printers, however, are confined to manual duplex, which is considerably more cumbersome and error-prone than automated duplex. In general, users are required to print all of the odd pages first, then print all the even pages on the reverse side.

Most printers that support duplex printing allow several options for page orientation. This is because when a book is bound on the side its back page is oriented in the same direction as the front page. When a book is bound on the top, as is sometime typical of "landscape" format books, the back page is printed "up-side-down" relative to the front page (see pictures). If you do decide to print on both sides of each sheet, therefore, take the time to become familiar with various options and do a "trial run" before attempting a large book.

Most binding techniques described in the following section work best using 25 to 150 sheets of paper. The large majority of the Heritage History Compact Library books fall into this range without resorting to two-sided printing, so while double sided printing is attractive and efficient, it is not necessary in most cases.

Printers and Printing costs:
        The key to producing inexpensive self-published books is to print them yourself. Relying on professional copying services for printing as well as binding may drive up the total cost of publishing some of these books to $10 or more.

Home based printing can be done very cheaply. Our own combined paper and ink costs come to only a penny per page. However, relying on low-volume, home-printers to do large printing jobs can be considerably more expensive than this, depending on the printer. Low-end office printers, with large, efficient toner-cartridges are much more economical for high volume printing than personal printers with small, expensive ink-cartridges, and they typically print many more pages per minute. If you do not have access to an office printer, it may be worthwhile to consider acquiring one. Low end office printers can be found for only a few hundred dollars, and the savings in per-page printing costs can be dramatic.

Top—Office-printer b/w laser cartridge: cost $47, prints 6,000 pages (.75 cents/page).
Bottom left—Home-printer b/w inkjet cartridge: cost $21, prints 500 pages (4.2 cents/page).
Bottom right—Home-printer color inkjet cartridge: cost $38, prints 400 pages (9.5 cents/page).

NOTE: These examples use the list-price for cartridges, but one can normally obtain refills for about 40% off.

Color Printing
        Many of the books in our collection have high quality color images, which can be reproduced very attractively on an inexpensive home printer. The per-page cost of color printing, however, is dramatically more expensive than black and white, even on an office printer. Only a small percentage of the pages in our books however, have color illustrations, and it may be worth the extra cost and effort to print these in pages in color. In particular, we've found that doing the cover page in color, even when the book front itself is fairly non-descript, makes the home-printed copy significantly more appealing.

Color image.

For our own purposes, we have found that printing the entire book on a low-cost black and white office printer, and then re-doing the color pages individually, on a low-volume, high-quality desk-top printer, attends to both cost-savings, and quality concerns.

It is difficult to make general recommendations about printer options. If you have access to an office printer at your home, business, school, or church, your printing costs will probably be quite low. If you need to rely on professional printing services, your costs will undoubtedly be quite high. If you are in a position to purchase a printer for home use, it we strongly advise investigating the cost of ink cartridges rather than considering only the cost of the printer itself. Sometimes the cheapest printers have the most expensive per-page printing costs. In any case, we recommend taking the time to understand printing cost trade-offs before embarking on ambitious home-publishing schemes.

Binding Options

There are at least four different ways to bind self-published books.

From top to bottom: Comb binding, Spiral Binding, Thermal Binding, Ring Binding

• A simple comb-binder can be purchased for less than $60, and binding supplies are inexpensive and widely available. Comb-binding can be done at home, inexpensively, with attractive results.
   
• Spiral bound books are especially desirable for self-published books because the pages can flip all the way around. However, they require specialized binding material, not generally available at home.
   
• Thermal binding is becoming cheaper and more readily available. Also known as "cover-binding" or "perfect-binding", this is the same method used to bind regular paper-back books.
   
• Ring binding is easy, flexible, and very inexpensive. It can be done at home without any special equipment and there are numerous options for presentation.
   

Three-Ring Binding
        The cheapest and easiest method of binding one's own books is to stick with fail-safe, three-ring binding. Almost every home has a three-hole punch available, and to make the job even easier, pre-punched three-hole paper is widely available at a very low cost. Books printed on three-hole-punched paper can be bound in a small three ring notebook, in a report folder, or with a simple, reusable set of binding rings.

Books can be bound inexpensively in a report folder or with binding rings.

The major advantage of three-ring binding is that it is simple and inexpensive. The only disadvantage, relative to spiral or comb bound books is that ring-bound books are not as sturdy as other binding options, or as easy to handle and store. Pre-punched three hole paper is only about a penny per sheet, and other binding equipment is also inexpensive, so a typical 100 sheet book can be printed and bound for less than $2.00.

Comb binding
        Like three-hole binding, comb-binding can be done inexpensively at home, without relying on a print-shop or professional equipment. Comb binding provides many of the advantages of spiral binding, but is easier to do independently. Although special equipment is necessary, an inexpensive comb binder can be purchased for under $60, and the bindings themselves cost only pennies per book.

If one punches one's own paper, the cost of comb-binding is just as inexpensive as ring binding. However, only 8 to 10 pages can be punched at a time, and for some people, the convenience of pre-punched comb-binding paper (which costs about 2x that of regular paper) may be worth the cost. All other necessary material, such as a stiff backing, a clear front cover, and the comb binding itself can be purchased for less than a dollar if they are bought in reasonable volumes.

Pages are first cut, ten at a time.

Whether one punches one's own holes, or uses pre-punched paper, a comb-binder is necessary to hold open the comb while the punched paper is inserted.

The binder opens up the comb, and pages are manually inserted.

The finished product is attractive and compact. It is not as flexible as a spiral bound book since the pages cannot be flipped 360 degrees, but it has a similar look and feel. The total cost of printing and binding a comb-bound 100 sheet book will be less than $3.00, even if pre-punched paper is used.

Spiral binding
        Spiral binding is more expensive than either comb or three-punch binding, because in most cases, one needs to rely on a print-ship to professionally bind one's books. Spiral binding equipment is considerably more expensive to obtain than comb-binding, and is out of the realm of possibility for most home-publishers. The typical cost for professionally spiral binding a book, assuming you print the book yourself, and provide a cover and backing, is likely to be between $2, and $4 dollars. Add at least a dollar for home-printing costs and the total outlay for a professionally bound spiral bound book is between $3.50 and $5.00.

On the positive side, spiral binding is probably the most attractive and appropriate method of binding self-published Compact Library books, and has several advantages over other methods. For example, spiral bound books can be opened up 360 degrees, so the current page is easily visible. Spiral binding is the method of choice for many workbooks, cook-books, and lab manuals, where having a book open all the way is valued at a premium. Spiral bound books can be bound along either the long or short side of the page, depending on the user preference. They are also sturdier than either ring-bound or comb-bound books, pleasing to read and handle, and easy to store.

Spiral bound books.

If you intend to spiral bind more than a few books, we recommend purchasing a supply of clear-front, and stiff backing, so that you don't pay the marked-up price, when you have your book professionally bound. These materials are relatively inexpensive in packets of 20 or more, but can add dollars to the cost of publishing if they are purchased individually.

Another way to save money if you choose to spiral bind books is to combine several smaller books and bind them together. Many of our books, particularly those intended for young and intermediate readers, are only 40 to 80 sheets, and two or more such books could easily be bound together.

Thermal Binding (Cover Binding)
        The manner in which paperback books are bound is called "thermal binding", or "cover binding". It is a long established method of book binding, but only in the last few years, has single-volume, desktop thermal binding become commonplace. Most office-services stores now provide this option, for only a slightly greater cost than spiral binding.

Thermal bound book.

Thermal binding requires the purchase of a pre-made cover for your book. These covers typically cost between $1 and $3 and include an adhesive strip. To bind your books, all a printer needs to do is place your sheets of paper in the center, and heat the adhesive while applying pressure. Theoretically, some money could be save by buying the specialized covers in bulk, but thermal binding covers are not one-size fits all, so one would need to buy a range of sizes. It is therefore impractical in most cases.

One advantage to thermal binding is that it does not require punched paper. Another is that it produces books that are bound in a familiar and attractive manner. We expect the affordability and ease of thermal binding to increase in the future.

The disadvantage of thermal binding, in regards to the current version of our Compact Libraries, is that a thermal bound book's pages cannot be flipped all the way open in the same way that spiral, comb, and three-ring bindings can. Since our ebooks are printed with relatively small margins in a landscape format, it is desirable to bind them in such a way that they can open all the way, and thermal binding technology does not allow for this. Thermal binding, therefore, works well for single-sided, low-page-count books, but not well for large, double-sided books, given our current format.

In future revisions, it may be possible to reformat our books to better facilitate thermal binding. We are keeping our eye on various options, always with the intention of making it as easy and inexpensive as possible to republish these books.